The New England Revolution will search for their first regular season win at Toyota Park against the Chicago Fire without the services of Benny Feilhaber, at least from the opening whistle.
In a bold move, Jay Heaps has elected to start Feilhaber on the bench, instead starting Ryan Guy and Fernando Cardenas along with Clyde Simms and Lee Nguyen in midfield. There was no indication prior to the match that Feilhaber would not be a starter, so at the moment the move remains unexplained.
Benny hasn't had the best run of games lately, and some have speculated that he's been having difficulty getting along with Heaps and/or the rest of the players. Many critics have called on Heaps to change up the starting lineup in an effort to shake the Revs out of their recent slump, and if ever there was a daring move to do it, this would be it.
Jerry Bengtson is also relegated to the bench, as he evidently has not recovered sufficiently from traveling to and from Honduras' friendly against Boca Juniors in Miami. It would be a good bet to assume that he will feature at some point, but in any case it won't be from the match kick off.
Blake Brettschneider and Fernando Cardenas have returned to the starting lineup after both players spent considerable time as substitutes. Oddly, Dimitry Imbongo was not included in the match day 18.
Lineups
Revolution: Matt Reis; Chris Tierney, A.J. Soares, Stephen McCarthy, Kevin Alston; Lee Nguyen, Clyde Simms, Ryan Guy, Fernando Cardenas; Blake Brettschneider, Saer Sene
Bench: Murray, Lechner, Rowe, Fagundez, Feilhaber, Barnes, Bengtson
Fire: Sean Johnson; Jalil Anibaba, Arne Friedrich, Austin Berry, Gonzalo Segares; Alvaro Fernandez, Daniel Paladini, Pavel Pardo, Patrick Nyarko; Chris Rolfe, Sherjill MacDonald
Bench: Nolly, Gargan, Bone, Videira, Pappa, Alex, Oduro